Puppies With Papercuts
by Zxel
Summary: Roxas didn't even know the redhaired guy trying so desperately to befriend him, but within a minute of listening to him, he was beginning to wonder what he had done to anger God so much. [Mild crack][Akuroku][Oneshot]


**Puppies With Papercuts**

The first time Roxas encountered the red-headed pest was on the schoolbus. It was purely coincidence on his part, because he never, _ever _took the bus if he could help it, but his mother was working late and his father was out of town. So there he sat, on the bus, ducking under the paperwads some of the juniors had decided to throw at each other from opposite ends of the vehicle. Roxas grumbled to himself and sank down in his seat.

"Your hair looks like a ducky butt."

Suddenly his empty seat was full of crazy and _red_ and this guy that had huge grin on his face and a piece of paper, unnoticed, in his hair. Roxas wasn't entirely sure how he should reply to this, and so he settled for avoiding the guy in all ways possible - physically and, more importantly, mentally - and hoping that he got the hint.

"No offense, you know, I mean, I can't talk." Attempt At Getting Hint Across: _Failed._ He spoke the truth, though, the red-head was a hedgehog. And were those _tatoos _on his _face?_

As it turned out, the creep was also in his head. "I know what you're thinking, I'm the person your mommy warned you about. Tatoos and drugs. But I was drunk and it wasn't my fault."

Roxas stared at him in disbelief.

"It's a really facinating story..." The guy continued.

"I don't _care_."

"See, I was with my buddy, Demyx, and he thought it'd be a good idea if we..."

Roxas buried his face in his hands. He hated the bus.

-----

The next time they met was outside Roxas's high school as he sat on a bench eating his lunch. It was an otherwise beautiful day, so he had decided to sit outside for once. It turned out to be a horrible idea, because benches didn't make for good hiding places.

"Hey, whatcha doin'?" The guy greeted, laying down on the bench and staring at Roxas, who was stuck halfway between sitting and shoving himself chest-deep under the table. His knee hurt.

The other boy didn't even seem to notice that Roxas was mid-escape. "See, I was thinking, I never even introduced myself last time we met. So, I'm Axel."

He thrust his hand out. Roxas wouldn't have shaken it even if his hands weren't busy preventing him from falling to a splintery death. Axel withdrew after a while and was blessedly quiet as Roxas scrambled out from under the bench and finished up his lunch.

Although he wouldn't stop staring at him with those bright green eyes and it made it really difficult to enjoy his pudding, dammit.

-----

Their next encounter was the next day in the hallway, and also coincidental. Roxas never used his locker, but carried his books in a bag, instead. But his faithful messenger bag had decided to rip halfway through second period while his friend Hayner teased him by hanging it over his head and bouncing it around while the teacher wasn't looking. Not only had Roxas had half of his schoolbooks dropped onto his head, but he had also gotten detention.

Axel was waiting for him at his locker.

_Oh God, no._

Axel didn't seem to notice Roxas cursing Aisha as he approached, and began that same insistent chattering.

"Did I tell you that I like your eyes yet? They look a lot like Larxene's only blue and less... scary. Have you ever met Larxene? Blonde hair, really tall? Always hanging around that one girl with the brown, flippy hair...?"

Roxas wished he could take in that much air in one go. He'd be great at kids' parties. He'd just have to learn how to tie balloons into funny shapes and he'd be set.

Axel babbled on as Roxas fumbled with his lock, trying desperately to remember the combination so that he could get the hell out of there. "...Anyway, yesterday I saw you in the hallway and you were holding some books, and one of them was a collection of Poe's poems, and at first I thought it was weird, but then I read through it, and the guy was really great..."

Roxas began to bang his head on his locker door.

"...So, I bought you a copy, y'know, because I thought, best friends should be nice to each other and--"

_That's it._

"Listen, you neurotic _freak_, I don't know you! You talked to me once on the bus, and I practically hate you! You're annoying and you're constantly hunting me down to pester me and bore me with your stupid stories! I don't want to be friends with you; I don't even remotely like you! Just leave me alone, already!"

Axel's mouth snapped shut and he actually _recoiled_. Roxas felt a pang of guilt at that, but not enough to stop. "And I _hate _Edgar Allen Poe. I was holding that book for my friend Olette. Who really is my friend because she doesn't _annoy _the hell out of me."

"Oh. I... I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you..." Axel swallowed hard and blinked a few times, looking very much like kicked puppy. Roxas was starting to _feel _like he'd kicked a puppy. "I'll just uhm... I'll just leave. Sorry."

"Axel, wait--"

"I understand, Roxas. I do. I was just trying to be friendly, I'm sorry I was so..." Axel wilted, shook his head, and walked away with the book of poetry tucked under his skinny arm.

Roxas let his head fall onto his locker one last time.

His combination was _13-08-54._

_Fucking perfect_.

-----

Roxas spent the next two periods rolling in self-pity and missing the tembre of Axel's voice. He was pretty pathetic.

-----

He saw Axel again in detention, and was very grateful for it, because he had no idea how else he would've found the older boy. Roxas plopped down in the desk next to him. Axel avoided his gaze and ignored every attempt Roxas made at starting conversation. Internally, Roxas cursed himself. Not only was he an asshole, but he didn't even have the stones to apologize like a man.

Kicking Axel under the desk only made the red-head let out a small whimper, and Roxas was painfully reminded of kicked puppies again. Puppies with bleeding sides.

He was a bad person.

The blonde sighed and twisted back around in his desk. Fine, if he couldn't apologize like a man, he'd go the girly way. He flipped to a blank page in his notepad and scribbled on it as fast as he could while sheilding it with his elbows. He was supposed to be taking notes and the teacher watching over them was frighteningly reminiscent of a drunken clown. Roxas was afraid of drunks _and _clowns, no matter how fond of balloon animals he was.

_My hair is so much like a ducky butt that I sometimes find eggs in there._

_Demyx sounds like a fun guy, but you shouldn't listen to everything he says. He seems nice, but kind of dumb. (Like me. I'm an idiot. You know that now.) _

_I do know Larxene. She and that flippy-haired girl are doing the horizontal polka. I'm not kidding. The flippy-haired girl's name is Selphie, by the way, and she's definitely the catcher._

_Oh, also, I love Edgar Allen Poe. If my heart could write poems, they would sound like that. _

_Friends listen to each other, see?_

_Friends also forgive each other when one of them is an insensitive dick._

_-Roxas_

For reinforcement, he drew a balloon donkey and a puppy sailing through the air in the margins. Then he hit Axel in the face with it. Axel looked up at him sadly, like, _and now you're throwing _paper _at me? _and Roxas had a horrific vision involving puppies and papercuts before signaling Axel to open it.

Then the teacher/drunk clown yelled something at him and he was forced to pay attention.

If Axel even read the note, he never replied.

Roxas left detention feeling like he had been kicked and hit in the face with an apology letter himself. It didn't feel great.

-----

The following day, determined to set things right, Roxas boldly took a hit and rode the bus. Axel was sitting in the very back and still looking thoroughly toed in the ribs. Roxas sighed. It was time to bring out the big guns.

He seated himself beside Axel, who pointedly ignored him, took a deep breath, and flung his arms around the other boy's skinny waist. "I'm sorry, I was an ass for no reason. Please forgive me, let's be friends. I feel like I kicked you."

"...You _did _kick me." Axel pointed out.

"I know, I suck so much."

"Look, Roxas, don't feel bad. Some people don't get along, it's not like you ruined my life, we just aren't going to be friends."

"I want to be your friend. We can talk about sex and play video games."

"...And braid each others' hair?" Axel asked hopefully.

"God, yes. You braid my hair all you want, Axel." Roxas sobbed.

Above him, Axel actually snickered before replying, "I can't wait to discuss boys and paint our toes together."

Roxas pushed away from him, laughing. "So..." He looked tentatively up at Axel, who was grinning yet again. He was surprised to realize how much he had missed it. "Am I forgiven?"

"Sure." He smiled and kept his arm around Roxas's shoulder. They rode in silence for a while. To Roxas, even the flying paperwads seemed lighter and prettier. Like little shooting stars of wonder. And then:

"You know, this reminds me of the time that Demyx told me off for--"

Yelling, of course, was an excellent way to shut Axel up.

But kissing, Roxas found, was even better. And even though Axel _did _whimper, it didn't include that 'kicked puppy with papercuts' feeling, which was always a plus.

-----

**Author's Note: **I've written so many depressing, choppy, philosophical things that I figured it was time for some fluffy humor. And since akuroku is my favorite pairing in the world, this is what was born.

**Disclaimer: **We wantses its, precious, but it's not oursesss...


End file.
